The most complicated relationship an artist ever had with an award show, I think.
Waylon Jennings and the Country Music Association have quite a history. And if you don’t know about their colorful relationship and are a fan of country music history, or even history in general, you really should… it’s utterly fascinating, if nothing else.
Waylon was nominated for 29 CMA awards throughout his career, and won four of them. Of course, being the true outlaw that he was, he never really cared if he won or lost anyways, which is what led to a lot of the friction between the two parties. In 1970, Waylon had his first real run in with trouble in terms of the CMA’s, which involved him leaving before his performance of his 1968 hit “Only Daddy That’ll Walk the Line,” because he was told he would need to cut it short.
As he recalled it in his his 1988 autobiography, Waylon: An Autobiography:
“One year I’d stormed out of the awards and didn’t mind telling anyone who would listen why. It was Kris Kristofferson’s night… he was a shoo-in for several categories. I had been scheduled to perform ‘Only Daddy That’ll Walk The Line.’
They said they were strapped for time, and they wanted me to cut the song to one verse and chorus. I said, ‘Why don’t I just dance across the stage and grin? Maybe do one line. That’ll give you a lot of time.’ They told me to not get smart. Either I did it or I got out. They said, ‘We don’t need you.’ I decided that was true, and I left.”
But that beef was far from over…
The 1975 CMA Awards
In 1975, Waylon was nominated for Entertainer of the Year, Male Vocalist of the Year, Song of the Year and Album of the Year, and he won the award for Male Vocalist of the Year.
But this time, it was different, because the CMA needed Waylon a lot more than he needed them. Pretty much as soon as Waylon walked into the show with his wife, Jessi Colter, his manager Neil Reshen told him that Jessi didn’t win anything, and as you might guess, Waylon was ready to leave…
Jessi insisted that they stay, and Waylon explained his frustrations in his autobiography further:
“So much for secrecy. If nobody’s supposed to know the awards before they opened the envelope, how did word get around? My heart went out to Jessi, and though my first instinct was to get the hell gone, I thought that maybe by staying I could raise some of the larger problems that faced country music, such as its closed mindedness and suspicion of change.”
And when he finally took the stage to accept the Male Vocalist of the Year award, he kept it very short, and not so sweet, saying simply in his iconic speech…
“Thank you, they told me to be nice, I don’t know what they meant by that. Thank you.”
But it didn’t end there… later, Waylon was presented the Citation of Merit for his nomination for Album of the Year while on his tour bus in some sort of ceremonial gesture, not long after this show happened.
Well, when they handed him the paper to sign his name, he left his signature and then some, writing:
“F*** you.”
The guy who now owns that certificate shared even more about that story on Facebook a little over 10 years ago now, where he also revealed that Waylon apparently threw it on the floor after signing it. Inject it into my veins, honestly:
But if you think the CMA had no response to all of this… think again.
The CMA’s Clap Back
Waylon was inducted into the Country Music Hall of Fame in 2001, and while doing some press around the event, the legendary outlaw told CMT that the Association at one point had told him he’d “never” get into the Hall of Fame, likely because of all the bad blood between them over the years.
It’s comical to think of saying that to an icon like Waylon, but course, he couldn’t give a rats a** because that was never a goal he had:
“They told me years ago I’d never be in the Hall, which was all right with me. I think you need to play your music and do the best you can with that, and that’s what you’ll be remembered for.”
But again, Waylon did them one better… he didn’t even go to the Hall of Fame induction dinner in his honor, and instead sent his son Buddy Jennings to accept the honor on his behalf, saying:
“I let one of my sons go there and accept it. I think it meant something to my kids, and that’s enough.”
Waylon did eventually return to the CMA Awards on better terms, though, and around a decade after the whole 1975 debacle, Waylon got back onstage in 1984 for a (full-length, of course) performance debuting his song “America.”
If he ever had any bad blood between Waylon and the CMA Award, you’d never know it here:
In a vintage interview from 1984, Waylon opened up about his beef with the show (this was not long after the “America” performance), and said the reason he had so much hostility towards them is because he didn’t agree with how a lot of it was done, with the block voting in particular leading to a lot of unfair, or even undeserved, wins.
I mean, it’s still like that to a certain extent, but no current mainstream artist would EVER speak out about it, and back it up with action, like Waylon did, and this is one of the only interviews I’ve seen where he addresses the CMA directly:
“The CMA show, you know… CMA and I, see, I don’t even pronounce it very well. We haven’t agreed for a long time on a lot of things. But we talked about the voting procedure, I think it was the next day, they got together and changed the voting procedure.
And I think it’s fairer now. The big companies don’t control, if I’m right, they only have a certain amount of votes now, like 200. Block voting, it’s much harder to do that. The reason I did the CMA show this year is, I felt they made a step, and I thought it was my turn.”
In terms of the block voting, that still exists today, and most labels have figured out how to use that to manipulate who wins so it’s kind of like back to square one, and Waylon would’ve hated that, obviously, but I digress…
As is evidenced many times over history and his storied, legendary career, you just didn’t mess with Waylon Jennings… and if you did, there was hell to pay, and usually, it was very much deserved.
He was the last of a dying breed, and obviously the music industry and the world has changed a lot since then, but at least we’ll always have these legendary stories that, sadly, are a thing of the past.
If you’ve never seen that 1975 Male Vocalist of the Year acceptance speech, you’re in for a real treat… God Bless Waylon Jennings:
